CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vb.netstring-formatting
ProGrammer
ProGrammer

Reputation: 1021

Formatting an idiomatically pronounceable time string

I have programmed a form in Visual Basic which displays the current system time (hh:mm:ss) in a label called "DigitalTime".

Now for the hard part: How do I program a second label ("WordTime") to use the current time (from "DigitalTime") and show it in the "WordTime" label in words like this:

Example 1: (time is 22:50) I want label "WordTime" to show "10 minutes to 11".
Example 2: (time is 13:15) I want label "WordTime" to show "15 minutes past 1".

For the minutes 0-30 I want it to display "... minutes past ...". For the minutes 31-59 I want it to display "... minutes to ...".

Upvotes: 0

Views: 95

Answers (2)

Bill Dinger
Bill Dinger

Reputation: 179

It turns out that it isn't that hard thanks to the wonderful ToString formatters available for DateTime in .NET and using String.Format. The DateTime structure in general has all you need to know on this stuff. One caveat and a gotcha, to subtract time from a current DateTime we Add negative amounts of time. There is no SubtractMinutes method on DateTime, only AddMinutes, so you add negative time.

With all that said something like this below. Ideally you'd just make it a function, but I left it fairly basic so it wouldn't get confusing.

10 minutes to 11:

Dim _textToMinute As String = String.Empty
If DateTime.Now().Minute > 30 Then
    _TextToMinute = "Past"
Else
    _textToMinute = "To"
End If


Dim _minutesTillNextHour = (DateTime.Now().AddHours(1).AddMinutes(-DateTime.Now().Minute) - dateTime.Now).Minutes
Dim _nextHour = DateTime.Now().AddHours(1).ToString("%h")
label1.Text = String.Format("{0} minutes {1} {2}", _minutesTillNextHour, _textToMinute, _nextHour)

15 minutes past 1

label1.Text = String.Format("{0} minutes {1} {2}", DateTime.Now().Minute, _textToMinute, DateTime.Now().ToString("%h"))

Upvotes: 1

tinstaafl
tinstaafl

Reputation: 6948

When the minutes is 30,it is common practice to use the word "half", as in "half past 6". Here's a simple little function that takes that into account and returns a formatted string that can be assigned wherever you need it:

Function TimeInCommonLang(ByVal input As DateTime) As String
    Dim minutes As String = ""
    Dim indicator As String = ""
    If input.Minute <= 30 Then
        indicator = "past"
        If input.Minute = 30 Then
            minutes = "half"
        Else
            minutes = input.Minute.ToString & " minutes"
        End If
    Else
        indicator = "to"
        minutes = (60 - input.Minute).ToString & " minutes"
        input = input.AddHours(1)
    End If
    Return String.Format("{0} {1} {2}", minutes, indicator, input.ToString("%h"))
End Function

Upvotes: 0

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